It was a good fight but the Japanese southpaw finished aggressively to win on the scorecards of all three judges, 117-111, 115-113 and 116-112.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who had earlier told us he had an agreement for the winner of the Nishioka-Marquez title fight to face Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire who wants to move up to super bantamweight after successfully defending his WBC/WBO bantamweight title against undefeated Omar Andres Narvaez at New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 22, early next year.

However, in an interview with boixngscene.com/philboxing.com/insidesports.ph shortly after Nishioka won, Arum said the planned Donaire-Nishioka fight will not happen as earlier planned for mid-January and that “probably Nishioka won’t fight Donaire until May or June because he wants to take a rest.”

Arum said “This will give Donaire an opportunity to have two fights before he fights Nishioka.”

Arum was clearly impressed by the Japanese champion. He said “I think Nishioka is a very, very tough guy to fight and he is very good.”